What comes after the PSA Grower Training?: Continuing Fresh Produce Food Safety Education in Virginia
Agricultural Issues
Sarah Sharpe
Extension Agent
Virginia Cooperative Extension
Stanardsville
Abstract
In Virginia, over 500 individuals have completed the Produce Safety Alliance's Grower Training to meet the requirements of the FSMA Produce Safety Rule. What we were finding is that there was no real follow up or continued educational opportunities for these individuals after this training. We found that growers who were not currently certified under GAP or HGAP were very overwhelmed, often not even knowing where to start to begin to meet the requirements. Now that the on-farm inspections have started for all level of farm sizes, we discovered that growers needed help both interpreting what the true requirements of the rule were and understanding how to implement their requirements on their farms.
Along with Local Food Hub, a local non-profit, Virginia Cooperative Extension was named on a grant to develop a course to help meet those issues that we were finding growers were facing. This course has modules that address all of the topics in the Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training except for water (introduction, worker training, animal risk management, cleaning and sanitizing, post harvest handling, required records) as well as an additional module on On Farm Readiness Reviews and Inspections. The course was released in January of 2022 with 15 individuals completing the pilot aspect of this project. The feedback from this course has been incredibly positive- with just about all individuals showing a knowledge gain after completing this course, with an even bigger goal of greater understanding of the rule being met.
In addition to this course, a newsletter was created and sent to all individuals (n=446) who had gone through the course to continue both education about the rule as well as keep VCE in the forefront of the producer's minds as they had questions or needed help incorporating the rule. Agents and specialists from across the state assisted in this process by writing articles and assisting with writing "Do you remember" questions. Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Produce Safety Team was also consulted and asked to contribute to the newsletter as a way to incorporate their educational resources for producers as well.
This presentation will highlight the course that was created (including some challenges and successes), discuss the knowledge gains and overall feedback of the course, how agents who work with growers who fall under the Produce Safety Rule from across the US can use the course, and share the newsletters that were created.
Authors: Sarah Sharpe
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Sarah Sharpe Extension Agent, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia, 22973